Eastwick Communications launched a new communication practice today, powering PR with wikis:
...Several Eastwick clients have already begun using the eastwiki to manage internal and external communications with new media tools such as blogs, wikis, and RSS. The eastwiki was built with the knowledge that the new media sphere is increasingly promoting a more collaborative approach to corporate communications.
Eastwick is assisting clients in using the wiki to build private and public workspaces including private rooms for reporters, client collaboration sites, and topic-focused public wikis for corporate and non-profit projects. In addition to the agency wiki, the new service will provide consultation in new media training, best practices in corporate blogging, and collaboration with globally distributed marketing teams.
Regular readers will know I'm pretty darn opinionated about the role of PR these days. There used to be PR gods who had access to key broadcast media. Now media isn't broadcast, the game isn't access and exclusives. It's conversations and inclusives.
I actually believe the market for PR Firms is growing, for a couple of reasons:
- A PR firm used to work with an information officer and some key executives. Now they have to work with everyone in the company
- It's hard to scale conversations
- Good PR reps actually make good bloggers.
Unfortunately, good reps are hard to come by as there are no barriers to entry for the profession and some people don't recognize when they are in a trust business. Interesting that people like Steve Rubel are beginning to have as much influence as those he used to influence.
Can you work without a PR firm? Sure, to start things out you are even better off without one. But as you scale, you need help, but as an entrepreneur you always want to play a role in the most public conversations. Hire people because:
- You trust them
- They get the new tools and practices
- They understand your business
- They work with you to make you better
Eastwick became a customer a while ago. Now they are starting to help me with the load and being a valuable voice in group conversations. PR Newswire is a customer, so I'm issuing some press releases now and then. In fact, they are using Socialtext to build a new platform for their Profnet expert network. In one wiki conversation, Eastwikker Giovanni Rodriguez provides a deeper comment when describing their Wisdom of Crowds approach:
...collaborative media is a nice counterbalance to all the technologies that recently have aided and abetted in the creation of what we like to call the "on-demand generation," and the current Internet ethos that has wreaked havoc on important social structures and norms. We believe that the Internet will be a better and healthier place when ego-centered technologies have a real and credible counterbalance. The invisibility of bloggers is not just a publicity problem. It's a societal problem. Wikis present a real if modest solution to this problem.
It will be interesting to see which firms and clients adapt, what mix of tools works best and how new roles and practices arise.
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